1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a supporting structure, a swaging jig for use in the manufacturing method, and the supporting structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2008-75481 discloses a supporting structure which supports a roller as a supported body between a pair of support walls opposed to each other. Both support walls and the roller are formed with coaxial through shaft holes respectively. A shaft member is sequentially inserted through the shaft holes. The shaft member has two ends facing outer surfaces of the support walls respectively. A punch serving as a swaging jig is driven into peripheral edges of the ends of the shaft member, whereby the shaft member is swaged thereby to be fixed in the shaft holes of the support walls. The punch has a distal end formed with an annular protrusion. The protrusion applies a substantially constant swage load to overall peripheral edges of both ends of the shaft member.
In the above-described case, when the peripheral edges of both ends of the shaft member are deformed so as to be spread with drive of the punch into the peripheral edges, there is a possibility that both support walls may also be deformed with deformation of both shaft end peripheral edges. In view of this drawback, the above-mentioned document provides a structure in which a connecting member connects between distal ends of both support walls so that the support walls are hard to deform. However, since the connecting member is added to the existing construction, the whole structure is complicated.